Hello!!! I thought it would only be fitting to share about myself and my journey in starting Pressed Floral. As a preface, I feel so honored to be doing what I do every day. As I have transitioned from the single employee to the CEO of a team, one thing has stayed consistent, the value of what Pressed Floral is doing daily. Our clients never leave our minds. The special task of preserving a wedding bouquet is no small feat. As we analyze and preserve each flower, we are reminded each day of how sentimental these are to our clients. It is an honor to handle such precious cargo daily. It is our hope that we can continually grow so that any bride that would like to can have access to our flower preservation. We know the importance of working with a professional, and we are confident in our processes put in place. It is a joy to have founded a business that can do such precious artwork.

Taken July 2019, the first successful Pressed Floral frame.

As I write this, I am 23 years old, married, have a 18 week old Weimaraner puppy, and spend my time with my husband, family, and Pressed Floral. I enjoy to travel, try new foods, cook, exercise, talk for hours with my friends and family, I love to go on walks, hikes, train for races, go to the beach, and do my morning routine. I've graduated college and aspire to be a great leader, an inspiring artist, and a good wife, friend, and mother some day. 

Me and my husband, Jono, in Iceland this last summer 2022.

My age brings a lot of pros and cons in the scope of what I do. One of the greatest strengths that I have is knowing our audience. Nationally the average age for marriage is 25-30 years old. This places me in a unique position of coming headway into the national marriage age range with a great idea of what a bride would want for bouquet preservation. We are constantly changing design styles, frame colors, frame sizes, and other customization options to mold into the trends that will have class for decades to come. We have options for all styles and types of brides, but our product will never be outdated.

Pressed Floral began three and a half years ago. I have always been a creative, searching for opportunities to create a living out of my creativity. I was simply up late one night in the spring of 2019 with a mind spinning with bridal content. My sister was getting married in a few months, I was currently working four jobs, one of which was a bridal dress shop, and another an intern for an online wedding vendor source for brides. I was involved in the bridal world many times daily. This spring night I thought of the idea of preservation for a bridal bouquet. Between two panes of glass, mimicking the original bouquet shape from the day of the event. A concept I had never seen before, and truly thought was genius.

I have always been a creative. From a young age I loved to act, dance, and sing – although I was never particularly good at any of these things. I loved to scrapbook, take photos and videos, plan parties, make recipes, paint, draw, redecorate my room. Creativity is my outlet and is a trait I knew that I always wanted to incorporate in my career.

The morning after my bouquet preservation “epiphany” I quit one of my four jobs so that I could begin my process of perfecting flower preservation. I loved flowers just as much as any female, I had preserved blooms in books, but was in no way a professional. The number of times that I almost gave up within the following five months, too many to count. Therefore, I preach to go to professionals. We are three and a half years in and still do minor tweaks monthly to make each flower even better than before. There is so much that goes into flower preservation, and it simply cannot be DIYed. Within those five months of endless trial and error I molded, browned, and ruined many flowers. Thankfully none of them were flowers of a bride. I began to become more and more competent and felt confident enough to launch my business. At the time, Pressed, was the name. I ended up changing “Pressed” to “Pressed Floral” some months later when creating a website.

Once I launched what is now Pressed Floral, we gained traction quickly and I slowly quit job by job until Pressed Floral was the sole thing I was doing full time. Preserving flowers into a flat float frame to display as a piece of art was a concept no one had seen before at the time of launching. A unique idea that current brides wanted, past brides wished had existed before, and future brides followed along so that they wouldn’t forget when the time had come. I gained followers quickly and fell in love with what I was doing daily. It has become my career and my passion.

Within six months I had hired my two sisters and roommate and had help from other friends every couple week for shipping. It changed from a “side thing” to a career, and I have fallen in love. I had been doing everything out of a Lifetime shed in my backyard. Heater in the winter, AC unit in the summer. Day in and day out I spent all my extra hours in my shed. An iconic beginning.

Cold winter morning designing a bride's frame in 2020.

In May 2021 I hired 6 more team members to Pressed Floral and we moved into our first physical location. A 1000 square foot white floor, and white walled beauty in Provo, Utah. Through the year of 2021 we gained followers, established more of a brand, and continued to grow. We started a movement, and a trend. Flower preservation slowly becoming a no brainer for a bride. At the end of 2021 I began looking for another space to work with our growth. July 2022, we moved into our second location, leaving Provo, and renovated this space into my dream shop. I could never have dreamed that this shop could belong to Pressed Floral.

The first Pressed Floral shop sign in Provo, Utah Spring of 2021.

Pressed Floral's current location and shop located in Orem, Utah.

My time in my shed seemed as if it was the cap of Pressed Floral’s growth. I am so particular about our designs, our preservation, our reputation of beauty, and I didn’t believe at the beginning that I could teach others that same vision. I believed that the number of designs that could be completed per month was the same amount that I could physically do a month. I have learned now that there are artists with extreme talent that could learn my vision, be taught what I expect for Pressed Floral, and execute it tenfold. The Pressed Floral team is special. I speak often of how I have a team of unicorns. They seem like humans that could only be envisioned in my imagination. They love what they do just as much as I do. They know the vision, they know the precious cargo that they handle, and they love our brides and the bouquets that come into our shop. They constantly are innovating our process to make it easier for all of you. I wish everyone could come in and fall in love with the Pressed Floral team as much as I do. They are special. We are invested in you, and it is our mission as a team to create a piece of art that ages beautifully and is admired for life.

Pressed Floral now works year-round accepting bouquets from across the country. Our most popular states are California, Florida, Texas, Utah, New York, Illinois, and Ohio. We have received bouquets from every state and out of the country as well. We have made friends from all over and feel honored that we can share our love for art and preserving special memories forever.

That is a summary of Pressed Floral from my point of view. We have grown, and have started a movement of bouquet preservation. We only have plans to grow, to improve, and to perfect this art. I am lucky to work in an industry of love, memory, and creativity. Reach out, come visit, and let me know when you began following along! Thank you to the moon for the support and love. It helps our growing business more than you'd ever know. 

xo Sarah